


Home for New Life

by Keolah



Series: Dark Moons [3]
Category: Elder Scrolls Online, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alcohol, Fluff, Gen, Holidays, Public Nudity, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:29:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Keolah
Summary: It's the New Life Festival, and Tiglah visits her former home of Windhelm for the first time since arriving in the Second Era. Although there have been many changes, some things remain the same.
Series: Dark Moons [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072838
Kudos: 3





	Home for New Life

The bridge was familiar, with a building standing to its right, but it was a different building than the stable that would be built at some point in the next thousand years.

She drew her tail under her cloak as she crossed the bridge, tugging it tighter against the sudden gust of wind coming up off the river. Years of living in Windhelm during the Fourth Era didn’t change the fact that Khajiit bodies were less built for cold climates than Nords. Off to the side of the bridge, near the frigid water, a group of nearly-naked Nords were drinking and laughing around a bonfire. Some things never changed no matter how many eras passed.

The boots on her paws left prints behind in the freshly-fallen snow as she crossed the bridge and came in through the gates, red Ebonheart Pact banners adoring the walls rather than blue Stormcloak ones. The afternoon sun shone brightly through a break in the clouds, causing icicles that cling to the eaves of the large building in front of her to glisten like small, twinkling lights. But it wasn’t a placard for the Candlehearth Hall that hung by its door, but a banner for the Mages Guild. It brought a smile to her feline face to think that the city that had been her home once held a Mages Guild.

She turned to the left, up the street that led to the market district. At least, it was an open-air market during the Fourth Era. Now, in the mid-Second Era, it was full of targets where the vendors would have set up their stalls. Two Nords and an Argonian were lounging about chatting, their practice weapons set aside for the day. That was another thing that made her smile — seeing the Argonians and Dunmer treated with respect, as allies rather than workers and refugees.

Tiglah went up a set of stairs, and paused a moment to look down at the graveyard and the Hall of the Dead. There was no blood on the ice today. She continued up the street before coming to a specific building at the end of the row. Her house. From which a sign proclaimed it to be called the Sober Nord Tavern now. Chuckling to herself, she pulled open the door and stepped inside.

Celebrations were in full swing inside the tavern, and a bard led verses of a baudy Nord holiday song. Tiglah went up to the bar, where a red-bearded Nord grinned at her as she approached.

“Welcome to the Sober Nord!” the barkeep said. “What can I get for you, Khajiit?”

“Got any Black-Briar?” Tiglah asked.

“Never heard of it,” the barkeep said. “You sure you’re not looking for some weak elf swill?” He teased lightly, but she could tell there was no venom in it.

Tiglah snickered, and made sure to put on her full Riften street rat accent, “Ah, get me a tankard of your strongest mead, man! None of that piss! How can you celebrate New Life if you haven’t had a proper drink?”

The barkeep laughed heartily and poured her her drink. “Good to see a Khajiit who appreciates a proper drink! Though you don’t sound like much of a Khajiit.”

“No, but I can fake it,” Tiglah said, and drank down her mead to the cheers of a couple of nearby Nords.

“You can fake being a fuzzy Nord better,” said one of them.

“Yes, all the mead just grew hair on my chest and everywhere else,” Tiglah said.

Warmer and happier with a belly full of mead, Tiglah bid the tavern a happy New Life and set off down the streets again. She headed down into what might become the Gray Quarter, beneath a forgotten clothesline with frozen linens hanging from it, trying to pick out where the New Gnisis Cornerclub would be, but too many of the buildings were different to pinpoint it and she spotted no impoverished Dunmer today. She went out the side gate and down the stairs to the docks, devoid of Argonians miserable in the cold. Just ones that were enjoying drinks at the bonfires on the shore.

How long might this flicker in history last before pointless hatred set in again? At least here and now, on this day, there was a brief moment of peace and joy on Nirn. Let them have it while they could.

Tiglah strode down the docks and stopped at the end of one of them. Yes, this was the spot. She pulled off her boots and cast off her heavy fur-lined cloak, having been shivering a bit because she was wearing nothing under it.

“Snow bear!” Tiglah yelled as she plunged naked into the icy cold water.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Life, everyone!


End file.
